Abstract Details

Harrison, Gabriel, 1818-1902 : Gabriel Harrison letters, 1873-1883

Letters regarding John Howard Payne to Gabriel Harrison from three current and former U.S. consuls to Tunis, William Penn Chandler of Philadelphia, George Whitfield Fish of Tunis and Flint, Mich., and Amos Perry of Providence, R.I. Also one letter, also about Payne, from Fish to Thomas J. McKee, a New York lawyer and friend of Harrison's.,The letters, which were probably responses to a correspondence initiated by Harrison during the revision of his 1875 work, concern the circumstances of Payne's death, the erection of and wording on his Tunis gravestone, the disposition of Payne's personal effects and the interest of his niece, Eloise E. Luquer in recovering them, Chandler's possession of Payne mss., and W.W. Corcoran's proposal to transfer Payne's remains to Washington, D.C. Fish, who had served as consul until 1882 when Congress failed to appropriate funds for the post, also comments on the shaky political situation at Tunis and the sad state of U.S. representation in the southern Mediterranean.